[iDC] DIY: nightmare for humanities, social sciences, media

[Maria Droujkova]

On Tue, Sep 20, 2011 at 10:05 AM, George Siemens <gsiemens at gmail.com> wrote:

> Question: How do those of you who are calling for large scale educational
> reform (I'm one, btw), but don't earn your living in the "practical
> sciences" like engineering, math, etc., envision the future of your
> discipline if the traditional system implodes? Who will pay the people whose
> research and ideas influence decades in the future, rather than in the next
> quarterly corporate report?
>

George,

Are you saying that STEM ideas always have immediate practical benefit? I am
most familiar with mathematics, and this is definitely not true for the
majority of math research. But every subject area has its basic or
theoretical parts that may directly influence the economy decades or
sometimes centuries into the future, or not at all. "A mathematician's
lament" - influential in math ed circles - is about this theme.
http://www.maa.org/devlin/devlin_03_08.html

To answer your question...

I think parents would pay - they care what happens decades in the future.

Long-term scholarly and R&D communities may want to pay for ideas relevant
to their members.

People who like futurism of all sorts may pay for it, too.

Cheers,
Maria Droujkova
Please help today!
http://www.naturalmath.com/blog/moebius-noodles-fundraiser/
919-388-1721

Make math your own, to make your own math
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